Vascular procedures such as angioplasty, atherectomy, thrombectomy, stent placement, etc., used for treating occlusive vascular diseases cause material to dislodge from the inside wall of blood vessels and enter the bloodstream. The dislodged material (e.g., plaque), known as emboli, may be sufficiently large to occlude downstream blood vessels, potentially blocking blood flow to tissue. Additionally, blood clots, known as thrombi, may form and either be sufficiently large or grow over time and block a blood vessel should the thrombus become released into the bloodstream.
Numerous interventional systems and methods that employ a filtration device designed to capture debris during the treatment or diagnosis of vascular disease are well known in the art. The procedure typically involves using a filter delivery catheter to transluminally insert and deliver, within a blood vessel, a filtration device to a location distal of a target site, such as a stenosis or a lesion, and then deploying the filter causing it to open. During such filter delivery process, plaque could be liberated from the walls of the blood vessel and create emboli and thrombi that may enter the bloodstream and potentially occlude distal blood vessels.
After deploying the blood permeable filtration device distal of the target site, an interventional device may be delivered over the guide wire to the target site. During treatment of a stenosis or a lesion within the blood vessel, plaque may be liberated from the walls of the blood vessel creating emboli and thrombi. This debris could then be entrapped in the distally deployed filter, and hinder its removal from the vasculature.
In view of the foregoing, it is desirable to provide an aspirating filter delivery catheter and method for extracting debris during the filter delivery process. It is further desirable to provide an aspirating filter retrieval catheter for extracting debris accumulated proximal of the filter prior to extracting the filter from the vasculature.